Giraffe came flying after him, landing almost on his back; but a little thing like that was not to be noticed when the main object had been accomplished. They had managed to get rid of their tormentors for the time being, and this gave Thad a chance to start the engine.
There was fortunately no need of cranking, and hardly had Allan clutched hold of the car to swing himself aboard when it was moving off.
“Duck your heads, everybody; they’re going to bombard us with stones!” shouted Giraffe, as a missile struck the back of the car with a bang.
Several came aboard, and one by some freak of fortune took Bumpus square in the back, causing him to give a loud grunt, though he declared it was nothing to bother about.
The fusillade continued until the car, increasing its momentum, managed to draw so far away that the stones fell short. When this became a certainty Giraffe, looking back, told them the Belgian boys had given up the pursuit.
“Ha! guess that was a case of the biter bitten!” said Giraffe, assuming all the airs of a victor expecting to be crowned with the laurel wreath; although if the question had been actually put to him he must have admitted that three other fellows had also had a “finger in the pie.”
“We got out of the scrape better than I thought we would,” said Bumpus, “when I saw how many of them there were. Giraffe, you’re a good friend of mine, ain’t you? Would you mind rubbing me in the middle of the back? Please not quite so hard, for you see that rock gave me a bit of a clump there, and raised a knob, I guess.”
“I’m wondering what’s going to strike us next,” ventured Allan; “for when you come to look at it we’ve been having some of the queerest adventures on this trip that ever could have happened.”
Bumpus shook his head as though he might be ready to pass the puzzle along.
“It’s too deep for me, Allan,” he said. “I’d think we’d pretty nearly exhausted the whole list by now, but still there may be more coming. It’s making me believe we’re fated not to get through with this car, after all, and that we’ll soon run up against a snag so big that it’ll sink our craft.”